why foreign policy matters

On the train today I saw four kids, not older than 14, wearing soccer jerseys with 'Italia' scrawled in marker on their arms and legs. I suppose soccer is beginning to take its hold on America after all, and it doesn't even seem to require any level of nationalism. Perhaps this means that even if an American does not win Le Tour, US interest in cycling will not diminish. I suppose we'll see.

How often in the past three years has North Korea's nuclear program been at the center of US foreign policy debates? Three years ago Kim Jong-il was a nutcase bartering for food and medical aid via blackmail, presumably to preserve his nations pride in the face of obvious destitution. Three years later, it seems that perhaps a different opinion on the issue merits weight. (Economist assessment). Unfortunately, we seem to be increasingly willing to forget historical antecedents in favor of both brevity and simplicity. It makes the reading lighter, and the workload seem a bit less. Is the media to blame, or is it the torpor of the American people? While we become increasingly global, while fourteen year-olds watch soccer matches held in countries whose capitals and leaders are unknown to them, we allow the obtund nature of foreign policy to catch us widemouthed as the enemy we think we know becomes the enemy we have never met.


"Stephen closed his eyes to hear his boots crush crackling wrack and shells. You are walking through it howsomever. I am, a stride at a time. A very short space of time very short times of space. Five, six: the nacheinader. Exactly: and that is the ineluctable modality of the audible." from James Joyce's Ulysses